Ayumi and the River Lady
by Sgamer82
Summary: Ayumi called her the River Lady because of where they met. They did so only occasionally, yet she had become someone for Ayumi to confide in. On this visit, Ayumi realizes perhaps she's been helping the River Lady right back. (ONE-SHOT)


**_Detective Conan  
_** _Ayumi and the River Lady  
_ by  
sgamer82

This spot on the riverbank had become a special place to Ayumi. She couldn't come as often as she would have liked, but when she did she always had a good time with the person she met with. Ayumi encountered the woman every time she found herself by this part of the riverbank. Using Conan's lessons, Ayumi assumed that meant she came regularly. She was present without fail and Ayumi's own visits were too erratic for that to work out by coincidence or on purpose.

"Nee-san!" Ayumi called cheerfully as she saw the woman who she had come to call the River Lady. The River Lady sat where she always did, with her legs dangling over the edge, her feet in the water.

"Ayumi-chan!" The River Lady smiled and waved. "It's nice to see you again."

"I'm sorry it's been a while," Ayumi said sheepishly.

"Don't be," the River Lady replied. "You're a busy girl. Besides, whenever you've been gone a while you come back with great stories."

Ayumi smiled at sat down next to the River Lady. With the water level where it was, Ayumi's legs weren't long enough to actually touch the water. She kicked her feet idly while they spoke.

"Now, on the topic of stories, what do you have for me today?" the River Lady asked eagerly.

"Ai-chan found a kitty," Ayumi said. "We were all playing soccer, and Ai-chan was about to kick, then she messed it up 'cause she saw the cat."

Ayumi knew that she had the River Lady's full attention. Early into their acquaintance, Ayumi had picked up on the fact that the River Lady seemed to really like when her stories featured herself and Ai Haibara rather than the actual boys among the Detective Boys. That made perfect sense to Ayumi. The River Lady was a girl; she and Ai were girls. There was no real reason to spend their time together taking about boys.

"Then the kitty ran away," Ayumi went on. "We went after him, and found him in the back of an open delivery truck."

"Oh, don't tell me..." The River Lady sounded worried, but she was grinning.

"The delivery drivers closed the truck without noticing us and drove away."

"I told you not to tell me," the River Lady said laughing. She started laughing even harder when Ayumi got to the point where Ai's knit sweater caught on something when the truck started moving and completely unraveled.

"It wasn't _that_ funny!" Ayumi balled her hands into fists. "Ai-chan was really embarrassed! Without her sweater she was only in her underwear!"

That did not have the desired effect as the River Lady began practically howling in laughter. Ayumi stood up and turned her back, ready to walk away.

"Ayumi-chan, wait!" the River Lady said between breaths. "I'm sorry, Ayumi-chan. I know I shouldn't laugh but..." She managed to control herself down to chuckling. "...it just reminded me... made me think of..."

She started laughing harder again. Ayumi, now curious, sat back down beside her.

"I can't count the number of times I had to tell her 'a long shirt is not the same thing a dress'!"

Eventually the River Lady managed to stop laughing. There were still tears in her eyes.

"I had to nag her about it from the moment she learned to dress herself," the River Lady told Ayumi. "Never had anything like _that_ happen though. She might have learned her lesson sooner if it had."

Ayumi was curious who the River Lady was talking about, but she insisted instead that Ayumi go on with her story. No longer feeling the woman's laughter was at her friend's expense, Ayumi obliged.

She explained how they found a dead man in the back of the truck, and how Conan had worked out that the killers, who were also the drivers, were using the cold of the refrigerated truck to fake the time of death. Ayumi told the River Lady about Conan's plans to get help before the drivers realized they were back there by sending a note with the cat and by hiding a message on one of the packages. She described how Mitsuhiko, having given his own jacket to Ai, nearly froze in the truck. Her concern became amusement when Ayumi had told her they warmed him up by bundling him and Ai together in one coat.

"Then Amuro-nii-san from the cafe came and saved us."

"Wow," the River Lady said after Ayumi had concluded her story. "That was a great story, Ayumi-chan. One thing, though?"

"Yes?" Ayumi asked.

"What happened to the cat?"

"Oh!" Ayumi gasped, realizing that she had forgotten. "His name's Taii, and Azusa-nee-san at the café has him now. There was some trouble though when three people showed up saying they were Taii-chan's owners."

"That sounds like a story all by itself," the River Lady smiled. "But one that will have to wait."

She pointed to the horizon, where the sun was clearly setting.

"It's time for us to depart," she told Ayumi.

"Aww..." Ayumi whined. But the woman was right. She got to her feet again and prepared to leave. As she did, something came to Ayumi's mind.

"Nee-san?" Ayumi asked. The River Lady was standing up herself and was about to turn to leave. Instead she looked at Ayumi.

"Yes, Ayumi-chan?"

"Do you know Ai-chan?"

Ayumi saw the River Lady tense.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, you always seem to like it when I talk about her. And sometimes you say things, like you did before about long shirts, that kind of sound like you're taking about Ai-chan. Then you won't answer me when I try to ask you about it."

The River Lady was silent for several long moments. Then she smiled.

"Well spotted, Ayumi-chan," she said finally. "You're right, I do know her. Very well."

"Have you been to see her, like how you and me visit?"

The smile remained, but Ayumi thought she saw something change in the River Lady's eyes. She shook her head.

"No. As much as I want to, I won't."

"Why?" Ayumi asked. "I'm sure it would make Ai-chan happy if you're someone she knows."

"I know it would," the River Lady said. "But the very reason it would make her happy would also make it so much more painful when we had to part like you and I are. I won't do that to her, so I have to be content to hear about her from you, Ayumi-chan."

"But... but..." Ayumi lowered her head. She didn't understand. Why would seeing her be worse than not?

That was when she saw it. As soon as she did, and understood why the River Lady wouldn't see Ai. Why she couldn't. Not normally.

"Oh..." was all Ayumi could bring herself to say.

"Yes," the River Lady sighed, following Ayumi's gaze

"In that case," Ayumi said. "I promise to keep coming myself. I'll tell you about all the the stuff we do!"

"I would like that," the woman replied.

"Can I ask one more thing before I go?"

"All right." The River Lady pointed to the darkening sky again. "You don't have much time, though."

Ayumi looked herself and realized she was right. The sun was nearly gone. She looked to the River Lady, standing at the edge on her own two feet instead of sitting.

Or she would be, if she'd had feet, rather than legs that ended at her shins. Shins that began several centimeters off the ground.

Ayumi didn't let that affect her. If she was going to ask her question it had to be now.

"If you were talking about Ai-chan all those times," Ayumi began, "then why do you sometimes call her Sh-"

Ayumi's eyes snapped open.

She sat up, turned on the lamp on her nightstand, and picked up the notebook and pencil directly underneath it. She opened to the page she had bookmarked before going to bed last night and immediately began writing.

Had someone walked in at that moment they would have been surprised at the focus in the seven year old girl's eyes as Ayumi wrote down everything she could remember as fast as she could. Before the process of waking up made her forget most of it.

The dream journal had been her mother's idea. When Ayumi had first begun to see the River Lady, she could never remember what happened. She remembered she met someone and talked to them, but nothing else. Ayumi's mother, noticing Ayumi's growing frustration with this state of affairs, had bought Ayumi a notebook and pencil, suggesting she write as much as she could remember as soon as she woke up.

Her first few attempts had been so rushed that they had resulted in illegible chickenscratch not even Ayumi herself could interpret. She improved each time, however, and now Ayumi was well practiced at rapidly writing as soon as she opened her eyes.

Upon finishing her notes, Ayumi closed the book and took a deep breath. Then she opened the book and began to actually look at what she had written down. Much of it was just a description of what she remembered happening; but three things stood out from the rest.

The first notation she examined was a note that read " _no feet = ghost?_ ". Ayumi could remember that discovery clearly. It certainly explained why the River Lady always kept her feet in the water. Or made it look like she did, anyway. To her own surprise, seeing that had not frightened Ayumi. Even thinking back on it didn't cause so much as a shudder. Perhaps because what that had suggested made Ayumi too sad to be afraid. Next to that note Ayumi had written " _too painful to visit her_ ".

" _Long shirts aren't dresses_ " was the next prominent note. There were similar notes on prior pages. Things like " _always got so worked up over a little static shock_ " and " _cheer her up? Cute animals have never failed_ ". They were why Ayumi had realized the River Lady was familiar with Ai. Next to this note Ayumi doodled an angry face, since she confirmed that the River Lady probably _had_ been laughing at Ai, even if it was at something Ai had done when she was little.

The third and last most prominent note was the answer to a question that had bothered Ayumi ever since she had come to the conclusion Ai and the River Lady were connected. It was the one thing that threw a wrench in her theories.

"Did I get that right?" Ayumi said out loud. Somehow, she doubted it. Yet her mistakes when writing in her journal had become fewer and farther between as she had gotten more practiced. The journal had even improved her writing in general enough that Ayumi had earned praise from her teacher at school.

Ayumi shrugged and flipped the notebook to its final pages, which she used to organize the scattered thoughts that her random journal writing usually resulted in.

She found the page she wanted, titled " _The River Lady and Ai-chan_ ", and quickly located the section she wanted. The bottom of the page had a question written in big kana, " _Why does the River Lady sometimes call Ai-chan Shiho_?" Despite her misgivings that she had remembered her answer correctly, Ayumi dutifully wrote down what she remembered the River Lady saying to her.

"Force... of... habit... I... suppose..." she said aloud as she wrote.

Ayumi had sometimes heard Conan mention how finding answers for a question only created more questions. If she had indeed both heard and remembered correctly, Ayumi could only assume this was one of those times.

Getting more answers would have to wait for the next time she saw the River Lady. She considered getting the opinions of the other Detective Boys, only to immediately decide against it. Conan and Mitsuhiko would just tell her they were dreams and nothing more, since ghosts weren't real. Genta would believe her, but would also blab to everyone else. Ayumi didn't feel she could ask Ai about any of this without disrespecting the River Lady's wishes.

Ayumi's alarm clock began going off. It was time for Ayumi to start getting ready for school.

Before she set it aside for the day, Ayumi turned to the final page of the journal. On that page was a drawing in the classic style of seven year olds everywhere. The drawing was of an adult woman whose black hair was long in the back and ended with bangs in the front.

"I'll tell you about Taii-chan next time," Ayumi promised. She closed the book, placed it on the nightstand, and got out of bed to get dressed for school.


End file.
